Australian actor and director Wayne Blair said coming from Rockhampton in central Queensland has been an advantage in his career.

Blair, who directed the hit Australian film The Sapphires and recently starred in the television series Redfern now, was at Central Queensland University (CQU) this week as part of its annual Student Leadership Conference.

Blair studied business at CQU in the late 1980s and early 1990s and took several drama electives.

"The course had enough flexibility to allow me to do that, it was really a starting point for what I do now," he said.

You need to step up to the plate to achieve great things because we're ordinary people. To achieve extraordinary things, you have to take risks, make decisions, [make] sacrifices.

Wayne Blair, Australian actor and director

Blair moved to Rockhampton as a child and his family still lives there.

"Mum and dad are still in the same house we built at the age of 10, so I go up and stay back in my old room 33 years later," he said.

"It is my home town."

He said the city, known as the beef capital of Australia, helped to shape him as a person and prepared him for the life he lives now.

"I think it's been an advantage — the sharpest axe is ground on the hardest stone," he said.

"I think Rockhampton is a tough town, the way it was built and the people that live here.

"It's multicultural these days, but it's multifaceted.

"People come from all different walks of life — you need to know how to wheel and deal in this town, and to exist and just to say 'I'm here'."

Do something you love

Blair said his main piece of advice for students was to follow their passion and work hard.

"You need to step up to the plate to achieve great things because we're ordinary people," he said.

"To achieve extraordinary things, you have to take risks, make decisions, [make] sacrifices.

"Do something that you're passionate about.

"You can quite clearly see that I'm passionate about my work now in the performing arts world and I would like to impart that type of passion, love and responsibility, I suppose, to these young people and older people today."

Blair was one of four keynote speakers at the conference, along with life coach Elize Hattin, health worker Lydia O'Meara and engineering student Jessica Kahl.